Monday, May 30, 2011

Modern Combat

Nina Ricci tiered dress
$1,790 - editnewyork.com

Herve leger dress
$1,150 - net-a-porter.com

Vintage floral dress
355 GBP - suzannah.com

Vintage cocktail dress
$150 - senseofashion.com

Long blouse
252 GBP - theoutnet.com

High heel boot
449 EUR - jades24.com

G by Guess low heel booties
$80 - gbyguess.com

Black boot
$45 - hottopic.com

In honor of the fallen who gave their lives in order that we may prance around freely in our mock combat boots.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

SUbZero Festival - June 3rd!


Black Lotus Clothing, Katherine Summer  and KathleenCrowleyCostumeCoiuture will be vending at SubZero this Friday evening, June 3rd! This is an outdoor street festival is San Jose - Cant wait! As usual, we will collaborate in creating a great shopping experience!

6pm - midnight
San Jose SOFA disctict in Downtown San Jose
(on South First Street between San Carlos and Reed Streets

We will be putting on a fashion show that starts at 7pm - come check out what we are coming up with for the show! You will not be disappointed!

Come check our fashion show and then stop by and say hi!

kc.costumecouture@gmail.com


Thursday, May 26, 2011

Lightning In A Bottle




I wont be there because Ive got so much work to do here in the Studio, but I and most of Salome's Suitcase have sent our merchandise down to LIB with Medina Maitreya who will be sharing a booth with Foxy McSugah the tooth bling Queen ( and designer extraordinaire as well!)

Wish I could be there, but I'm also getting ready for another festival coming up in San Jose on June 6th and I'm just going to have to be in Southern California in Spirit!

So go to the Marketplace and check us out! I hear the booth is beautiful and I know you'll find something that you just cant live without!

So much fun to be had!
XXXX

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Fluffie Patterns Are Now In Stock


. Tribal Fest is over and it was great fun - thank you all for coming to the Salomes' Suitcase Trunk Show! I'll write more about it later! I'll just say that we had great fun dressing everyone for the Rapture that never happened!!!!!

If you dont know yet, I want to let you all  know that I have two Fluffie Rufflie Patterns available now . There is no fancy packaging yet, but if you just cant wait (and it might be a long wait.......) I have these in stock and ready to ship. I'll have a listing for them on Etsy soon, but in the meantime, you can message me with which pattern(s) you would like, with your zip/post code and I'll invoice you, then send it to you!

Fluffie Rufflie Dance Pants (multi-sized from XS - XL) $20.00
 This is Elizabeth Mahina - and this is her Etsy Store! I love her Good Karma Wrap Cover-ups!

 Fluffie Rufflie Pantaloons (multi-sized from XS - XL) $20.00
 This is Jen Cerdena and her troupe mates!

 kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Tribal Fest and The Rapture


































 We've got Tribal Fest AND the Rapture on the 21st!!!!!!!! How exciting! Be there or be square!
Ive been sewing furiously to dress the Heathen for fine Tribulation viewing!
See you there!


Saturday, May 7, 2011

Spring Custom Sale!

































I'm putting all my Etsy Custom listings on sale for a valuable discount of 20%!!!
I'll leave the sale up for a while, or until I have reached a sizable amount of work to do!
Use this discount code at checkout: springcustomsale
If for some reason, you cant enter the code at the end, convo me at Etsy or email me at kc.costumecouture and we can work something out - I usually will invoice you through paypal although I can take your credit cards now!
:)
This is a great sale! I said once before that I wouldn't do this again, but never say never is what I always say after that!
Im going to start offering listings of my favorite styles of costume gowns to make! I dont know why I didnt do that before - probably so busy with all those Fluffie Rufflies!!!!!!
Enjoy!

Efficiency


































I'm always, always, always trying to find better ways to be more efficient. And with this economy putting a damper on spending, this has become very difficult. The less the public spends, the harder the artisan has to hustle to keep food on the table. Its nobody in particular's fault and I'm tired of finger pointing. It just is what it is and hand made goods are fighting hard to not be a thing of the past!

My friend Lee kidnapped me yesterday and we ran around doing errands and catching up. For some reason I thought that by moving closer to some of my friends, we would all see each other a lot more - but we are all so busy making, creating, designing and working, that we don't see each other much at all most of the time! But when we do, its great, and we can talk about whats working and not working in our creative lives.

Time management seems to be one of the things that hampers us the most. Sometimes we end up working til the wee hours of the morning - just to have to get up in a few hours and do it all over again. But I think that there is a lot of puttering around in all those hours that just sucks up our day. And I think that this is common for those of us who live and work in the same space. We lose track of time. We are in our own universe. We set our own stage and make our own hours and forget that there is a world out there that runs on an atomic clock somewhere that dictates how things should run hourly to the second - 24/7. It doesn't matter if you have calendars and clocks in front of you in our little worlds - alarms and bells and whistles that go off at certain times - yes, things have to be done at certain times of the day. animals have to be fed, we have to be fed, packages have to be shipped, deadlines have to be met...........................but damn it: the day gets away and then its a month later and where the hell did that month go????

I think that this is very common. Articles on how artists and the self employed think and work have been in my face recently. I think a lot of us have ADD or ADHD - call it what you will, but we don't think like the 9-5'ers, so our problems may a bit unique. But  I don't like how this has been working or not working  anymore. I would like to change this. I would like to get more done in less time and start to have part of the day just for me now and then. Fancy that.

 The nature of my beast is always going to determine how my day is spent. I have two hands only and four hands one day a week. I do the impossible job of doing things by myself and juggling way too many creative balls in the air because I simply have to. I love my life and I have a job that Ive created for myself.. I dont want my job to disappear. I need to be more productive with my time.

So the consensus with my kidnapper was that we need to set hours and treat those hours like one would a real job that you would leave the house to go to. We have to get up, shower, get dressed (perhaps even set our clothes out for the next day) prepare our lunches and plan our errands during our lunch hour just as if someone were handing us a paycheck. And maybe the clue phone has been ringing for years and I have not been picking up...........but I had to try all different ways to have my life. And now I'm trying this new self disciplined one....................and dont get me wrong - I work very, very hard!!!!!!!!!! It does take a great deal of discipline, will, strength, focus, and faith to live this kind of life...........perhaps we just need to tighten this up a bit.
New.hours will be 10am - 6pm.

Of course, I'm going to take fittings and consultations in the evenings and during the weekend when I can. Of course I'll still work late if I have to. Of course gigs and vending opportunities will affect any hours I lay out for myself............but maybe with this new mindset, more will get accomplished and we will all be happier for it!

Well, if I were to officially be starting this new schedule today, I would officially be late for work. Tomorrow is another day!
kc.costumecouture@gmail.com

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's of the World! Even if you dont have children, chances are, by your very nature, you have nurtured someone or something at some point in your life. This is just the nature of being a woman.

There are good mothers and bad mothers and mothers who just muddle through. Some love us, some hate us, some adore us, some dont like us at all.

They say that we choose our mothers before we come back to this life in order to learn things that we didn't learn from the life before. I learned a lot in this life. I learned that I have to be more tolerant of all people because we have no idea how someone else's experiences have come about. We live in a time where mental health issues are seen in a different light. We have more access for correcting our own behavior. We have every means to educate ourselves on self help and to better our thinking and consciousness. Our parents may not have had these things so readily available, they may have been stuck in old rigid patterns of thinking that do not pertain to modern life as we know it, and their parents certainly did not in most cases.

So we do our best. And we use our parents as guides to our own inner and outer development. They hold up the mirror and we either like what we see or we don't. And if we don't, its up to us to change - and not the other way around. Easier said than done, but its the truth.

XXX

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Sulamith Wulfing


































Back in the 90's when I used to hang out up in Marin County a lot,  I scoured the thrift stores religiously. A friend of mine and I found an old polyester housecoat from the 70's that had been made from fabric screened with Sulamith Wulfing  images. I don't know the term for that type of printing, but it was very popular back then. I made something for my friend out of this coat and then kept the scraps for myself. I made a corset from the bits I kept. This corset is one of the things I have made that I cant part with. This fabric has been one of my favorite scores because when I discovered Sulamith Wulfing in the 70's, her art pierced my heart and stayed there til this day. How powerful to be able to do that to someone through one's art.
Tonight I googled "Sulamith Wulfing" and my corset popped up in the images!
 And here is a front view. Kristine Adams is the lovely model. Her tattoos blended in so beautifully with the corset - the upper image is one of my very favorites!
So here are some images of Ms. Wulfing's that I hope bring you as much inspiration as they did me. Romance and sadness of spirit, medievalism, intricate embroideries and jewels, crowns and magic, nature and the mystic...............I read somewhere once that she fled Nazi Germany because Hitler wanted her to paint for him. That's what I remember and cant find any of that info now. She did leave Germany and was separated from her husband, but they were reunited.

Here is a picture of Sulamith......